Ricciardo moves on from appeal loss

Daniel Ricciardo has already moved on from the bitter disappointment of this week's appeal loss that denied him the best result of his Formula One career.

In front of his home fans at Melbourne's Albert Park last month, the 24-year-old Ricciardo was euphoric after finishing runner-up in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Just over five hours later, however, Red Bull were found guilty by the race stewards of contravening the new regulations for this season regarding fuel flow.

Despite presenting what team principal Christian Horner described as "a very strong case" to the International Court of Appeal at the FIA headquarters in Paris on Monday, Red Bull failed in their bid to see Ricciardo reinstated to second, losing out on a valuable 18 points.

With only fourth place to his name this season from the last race in Bahrain, an unperturbed Ricciardo said: "I'm obviously a little bit disappointed, but at the same time I had moved on already.

"On Sunday in Melbourne the damage was already done and I went from a big high to a pretty big low, so I'd sort of moved on.

"I hoped, but didn't really expect too much to come from it, so that is it. I'm here now in Shanghai and that's it.

"There are no more ifs or buts, it's here, I have 12 points and I just have to play catch-up."

Red Bull had argued the fuel-flow meters have been consistently at fault this season, forcing them to take their own readings during the weekend in Australia, but against FIA regulations.

As to how Red Bull move on should they encounter further problems in the future, Horner said: "It can't be disputed there have been quite a few issues with these sensors.

"Hopefully with more experience and time they will become more and more reliable.

"We didn't have any issues in Bahrain, and hopefully that will continue to be the case."

Horner naturally feels sorry for Ricciardo, the Australian does not have runner-up against his name from his home race, and the trophy to go with it.

"It would have been handy to have the points, obviously," added Horner.

"So we've got what we have got and now we have to close the gap, or at least mitigate the damage whilst we are in turn closing the gap.

"Of course, they would have been good to have, but more importantly they would have been good for Daniel because he had such a great race in his home grand prix.

"It's such a great shame it won't go down in the history books as a second place for him."